Were you one of those families that used to litter back in the 1960s, (we were!)?

grahamg

grahamg

Old codger
Location
South of Manchester, UK
Back in the 1960s, (and maybe bit beyond) my family were the sort that used to drop litter out of the car as you were driving along, (my father setting the exmple when he used to smoke, dropping the cigarette foil out of the window, or sweeties/candy papers or wrappers too!

Of course there is very deinitely no way I would do such a thing, and i disdain the louts who still managee to ty to mess up our countryside here abouts with litter after they've had their fast food meal or whatever!

However when plastic wrappings on food was relatively rare, and most soft dinks came in bottles upon which there was a return fee of a few pence, then I must admit we didn't care about causing at least a little bit of a mess.

How things have changed hey! :rolleyes::whistle:🤬
 

I would say no but that's probably not true, my dad would have been littering the ditches with empty Strohs bottles and cigarette butts.

I know he was like that because I live on a piece of property that was part of our family farm, I still find empty beer bottles in the woods. Considering he died in 1980 they've been there awhile.
 
I wasn't but both of my parents were. I always yelled at my mom when she'd toss whatever she didn't want out the window. She didn't care if many people were watching, either - as if it's the "normal" thing to do.

I was driving my dad somewhere once & he lit his pipe & threw the match out of the sunroof.
He didn't know a cop was behind us.
The cop got on his P.A. & said, "Sir, your sunroof is not an ashtray."
I was hoping he'd pull us over & have a talk with him.
 

Were you one of those families that used to litter back in the 1960s, (we were!)?​


No, but me and a few other kids picked up beer bottles outa the ditch
A penny each
Ten of those bought a tube of 100 BBs

bbs.jpg


After getting 20 bottles (all stubbies) we'd ride our bikes the 10 miles to town, buy those BBs and head back
Took a couple days or more to use up that ammo
 
My parents or any of us in my family never threw trash out of the window. Neither of them smoked, but if we ever had a guest in the car who did, they would use the ash tray without being told. None of us were perfectionists, but we all agreed that littering anywhere was wrong.
 
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Blessed said:
No we did not do it but I was one of the kids that collected those bottles for refunds. I have a rather nice scar on my leg from falling on one.
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I'm sure my dad never sent a bottle into any ditch thank goodness, so not guilty of scarring anyone's leg, but the crisp packets, sweety/candy papers etc., were almost thought okay to chuck back then!

Howevrr, before all the very good folks here get feeling too comfortable about their own behaviour, in my humble opinion the use of plastics nowadays, out do's anything going on in previous generations, so us lot are guilty as sin on that score aren't we! :(
 
Neither my Mum nor my Dad would allow us children to litter. We even picked up other people's litter when we had a picnic in the bush. Dad said we should always leave a place better than we found it. Needless to say, which such training we did not litter as adults.

What we did do, but have stopped since, was to burn rubbish in our backyard incinerator.
 
Certainly not, grahamg....don't you remember the little squirrel with his telescope spying on litter louts? Obviously some of us were better brought up than others.
 
I was always kind of environmentally conscious. I liked camping and hiking, so it made sense to not litter or trash out the woods. I don't remember my parents ever doing something like dumping an ashtray out of the window. I don't think they went out of their way to protect the environment, but they didn't intentionally pollute or litter.
 
Lavinia said:
Certainly not, grahamg....don't you remember the little squirrel with his telescope spying on litter louts? Obviously some of us were better brought up than others.
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I cant argue with you there, (though in her defence my mother did say "she did her best", and with seven to cope with, plus dad she had her hands full didn't she!). :unsure::)
 
No.

We didn't have much to throw away.

It seems like there were plenty of recycled fifty-gallon drums available for trash at the rest areas and scenic overlooks built by the CCC where we used to picnic in the days before the high-speed interstate highways.

I remember my uncles field-stripping their cigarette butts, a holdover from WWII military service.

As others have mentioned, much of my childhood was financed by deposit bottles from the roadside ditch.
 
Never! I was brought up in the 1940s and was taught never to throw litter anywhere but a real trash can. Keep it with you in an old paper bag at least till this was possible. Certainly never from a car. Very disapproving of anyone we saw doing it. Raised our kids the same way.
 
I was talking to a lady in the supermarket about people hurling stuff out of their cars.

She told me that one day she was driving along, when a car overtook her and someone chucked a full babies nappy/diaper out of their car, it landed on the bonnet of her car and attached itself to a windscreen wiper.
Angry, she followed the car to a housing estate, then she took the nappy, walked up the path where the dirty louts lived and dropped the nappy on the people's doorstep, and as she walked away the front door opened, she called over her shoulder, "You lost that parcel out on the road, it was lucky for you that I saw it and returned it for you, have a nice day."
 
grahamg said:
I'm sure my dad never sent a bottle into any ditch thank goodness, so not guilty of scarring anyone's leg, but the crisp packets, sweety/candy papers etc., were almost thought okay to chuck back then!

Howevrr, before all the very good folks here get feeling too comfortable about their own behaviour, in my humble opinion the use of plastics nowadays, out do's anything going on in previous generations, so us lot are guilty as sin on that score aren't we! :(
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You were driving around in cars, munching crisps and scoffing sweets? Wow! you were living the life Graham lad, we didn't have a car, can't remember mum buying crisps and sweets were a treat on a Sunday night when we all sat in the front room and watched Sunday Night at the London Palladium. :)
 
grahamg said:
Were you one of those families that used to litter back in the 1960s, (we were!)?
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More so than today, but not so bad as many.

Remember my uncle teaching me how to toss a beer bottle from the drivers side of the car over the roof so it would land on the roadside rather than in the highway. At 60 mph. I got pretty good at it. I guess that was once the responsible thing to do...

No longer throw trash out the window, except chewing gum. And don't drink whilst driving either, not often anyway.
 
grahamg said:
I'm sure my dad never sent a bottle into any ditch thank goodness, so not guilty of scarring anyone's leg, but the crisp packets, sweety/candy papers etc., were almost thought okay to chuck back then!

Howevrr, before all the very good folks here get feeling too comfortable about their own behaviour, in my humble opinion the use of plastics nowadays, out do's anything going on in previous generations, so us lot are guilty as sin on that score aren't we! :(
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I use very little plastics, but when I can only get coffee in plastic containers, I reuse them for collecting bones, cooking oil, etc. When full, they go to designated dumps that do not affect the watershed. But I agree, other people and places are dumping thoughtlessly and ruining water sources. Now, I buy vegetable-based, biodegradable trash bags. I only fill a 30 gallon bag full about once every 4-6 weeks. If only they would/could apply that technology to milk, pop, and water containers!
 

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